As many of you know, the Newmarket Town Hall burned down last month. Anyone who has been dancing in the Seacoast area for a few years will remember that we used to dance there two times each month. I have heard rumors that the hall may be rebuilt in its old form. I don’t know how likely this is, but it would be nice if we could dance there again at some point. [2020 Note: Sadly, that never happened.]
We started having dances in Newmarket in the fall of 1979, when Ryan Thomson (Captain Fiddle) and the Last Chance String Band started a series with Steve Hundert calling. Later on a variety of musicians and callers did the dance. For a while Tod Whittemore was calling once/month.+ The dances continued until Spring of 1985 when construction in the hall and town politics forced us to find a new home for the dances. The dance went through better and worse times, but the hall was always a very comfortable place to dance.
The Newmarket Town Hall, July 1982. Photo courtesy of the New Market Historical Society.